ghosts
by amorendlessly
Summary: It was the summer before her sixteenth birthday and the start of a beautiful friendship./ "Uncle George?" "No, wrong one. And you call yourself a niece"


Lily had grown up hearing stories about her infamous uncle Fred. There was a portrait of him in every Weasley household and saying that they were a legend at Hogwarts was a bit of an understatement.

She spent her entire life brushing off his heroics, brushing off his highly appreciated good looks, and now that she was sixteen, she almost wished that she had paid more attention because then maybe she could've became somewhat of a legend herself. It was a little late for that now, though.

The one thing she had never counted on, however, was meeting him.

It was during summer. She was only fifteen and she didn't turn sixteen until the day of September 11th which kind of put a damper on birthday celebrations.

Friday night (Saturday morning?) around three in the morning she was wandering around the burrow with no real intentions. She had come to spend the weekend with her grandmother and grandfather.

She went to a muggle summer school or she would have spent the week, which after that mornings events, she probably would have preferred.

She was walking past a particular cupboard, (room?) that she'd never bothered to look in when, she could've swore, she heard a whispered "hey!"

She stared. The door did not move and the only sound she could hear was the howling of the wind outside, there was no creaking of floors to indicate that she was not alone or that somebody else was awake. She must have imagined it. She turned slowly, and began to continue her journey when "Pssssssst!" rang out from behind the door once again. This time she was sure that she hadn't imagined it, and turned to fully face the door, giving it her undivided attention.

"What?" she whispered towards it. No reply. "Is someone in there?" She asked quietly. Nothing but the wind howling. Finally she gave out a mini groan, and turned the knob. She was faced with a room. The beds were neatly made, and a few boxes were shoved in the few corners that were available, and one thing was for sure, this was her uncle Fred's room. She was sure that uncle George had come in and cleaned it up, not being able to bear the idea of his mother doing it. The room smelled musky, and the only light there was belonged to the moon, which only illuminated it enough to wear she could make out some of the shapes. "Oi, you."

Lily wheeled around quickly. "Uncle George? You scared me!"

"Nah, wrong twin. Honestly, you call yourself a niece?!" He asked, then chuckled to himself like it was some sort of inside joke. "What?"

"Ah, that's right." He said sadly. "I'm Fred, but you can call me one handsome devil." Lily reached out to touch him. He was solid. "Oh very funny uncle George, but we both know that you can't touch ghosts."

Her uncle gave a frustrated sigh. "I'm not George, and I'm not a ghost. I'm just sort've here. Like I've died but not fully. It incredibly frustrating."

While Luna was more than skeptical that this was her uncle Fred, there was just something in his voice that made her stop and think about it. She'd never heard of an occurrence like this, and maybe death wasn't the straight line that she'd always thought that it was. Didn't people come back all the time in the old stories? Though, it was usually by being a ghost or just being imagined by a simply mad mind. She didn't think she was mad, but the more she listened to and looked at him the less and less likely it seemed that he could be uncle George.

"But how is that possible?" she whispered, amazed.

He shrugged, and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Lily luna had never been one to make a lot of friends or date a lot of boys. In fact the idea that she had a boyfriend or even a friend was laughable, but she had an air to her of someone who had found companionship. She stopped sharing all of her worst fears with Teddy and her mother, she stopped trying to force her cousins to something they didn't want to do, and she spent a lot more time with her grandparents at the burrow.

Months passed, and Lily had experienced her first heartbreak. Who better to share it with other than her would be uncle at the burrow. She cried and kept her emotions buried all school year, and first chance she got during summer, she went to the burrow to spill all of her secrets. It was the first time anybody had ever ever held her while she cried. Teddy always felt too awkward and she just didn't go to her mother with that kind of stuff anymore.

It was a very long time before Lily realized she was attracted to him. It was even longer until she realized how guilty she felt about it. She tried to console herself by saying that he wasn't even really alive, he didn't have blood pumping through his veins, he was only a would be uncle. They weren't technically related, right?

Wrong.

The summer before her seventeenth birthday he kissed her. He was warm, like he was alive, and his pants looked tighter than usually, which put her theory about him not having pumping blood to rest.

She moved away after she graduated Hogwarts, and soon after her grandparents death, the magic that kept the Burrow up faded and the whole thing came tumbling down.


End file.
